The Latest ‘Deep Callings’ Materials.
This publication – Personal and relational experiences on meditation journeys following developmental trauma – is giving voice to six individuals whose early social environment had contributed to an inner conflict and who, later in life, turned to a meditation practice. Meditation can act as a solvent of the boundaries of the conscious mind. In this opening a space for history is created. The participants’ reflections speak to the complex work of self-reconciliation that can be happening away from the public eye. At the same time, they show a creative resiliency within the inner life of individuals in search of healing. How many stories of self-development may begin with the rescue of an abandoned child?
This conversation for the Learning Matters podcast with my colleague Chris Stocking explores the theme of ’Transformative Learning’. This was the first time we shared things we have been talking about more openly with others.The conversation touches upon the need for soulful and embodied pedagogies as well as the responsibility to lead with relationality in education: What does it mean to create a relational space that offers the possibility of change and where we make ourselves available to each other so that answers to the questions that matter become more accessible and acceptable?
‘Deep Callings: The Will of the Heart’ is a paper that expresses an orientation towards the subtler experiences in teaching that prioritise the engagement of relatedness and our commitment to heal the self in education.
Have we not all observed the moment when a person reveals their knowing because their character has been welcomed, but do we know the people in our classrooms? ‘Stories from the Heart: Who We Are and What We Know’ is an educational project that is working with the biographies of students to understand the realities and intelligences that surround their lives.
Here is something I have written about working with students in a way that recognises our embodiment and human eye contact. It has struck me how deep and complex the life process of each student is. But there is a sense that beyond our cognition, there is something there that can bring relief and meaning to what life is demanding from them. It is subtle and often emerges as a blue note that signals it is late, and it is losing hope. So the students and I made this commitment to bring the heart into motion. Even though this may look like nothing, it feels like something can be created out of these emissions to form an individual path which is also relevant to others. This blog tries to express this idea that there is something there that loves the future: Hosting the Heart | Learning Matters